Our history

Hertsmere Jewish Primary School opened with great fanfare in September 1999, in the company of Prince Philip, and the then Chief Rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks. The school was officially named the “Joy and Stanley Cohen Hertsmere Jewish Primary School” as a mark of recognition of the generosity the couple showed in making the school a reality.

The opening of the school, with just 60 pupils, marked the culmination of many years of hard work by a dedicated steering committee who oversaw the development of the school building on the Watling Street site.

The school was borne out of the desire of the Orthodox communities in Hertfordshire to establish a Jewish Primary School in the area. The aim from the outset was to meet the needs of local Jewish children in an environment that mixed first rate secular education with an environment of Orthodox practice and religious education.

Under the guidance of the first Headteacher, Michèle Bazak, the school quickly developed a reputation for excellence, receiving high praise in its first OFSTED report in 2001 for virtually every category of inspection and achieving excellent standards in Jewish Education in the first Pikuach report the same year. Mrs Bazak continued to lead the school forward throughout its first decade, turning HJPS in to one of the best performing schools in the borough, receiving ‘outstanding’ OFSTED reports on two occasions and placing the school at the top end of the results tables.

In 2010, joining from his post as Deputy Headteacher at Menorah Foundation School, Mr Steven Isaacs became the school’s second Headteacher and continued to maintain its outstanding reputation in Jewish Studies (see Pikuach Report 2015) and in secular education (see Ofsted Report 2009). Since his arrival, the school has also achieved its first Arts Mark accreditation, demonstrating excellence in the arts and cultural provision, and has gone from strength to strength in numerous sporting endeavours and outstanding achievements in various core subjects.